The “Qatar Airways situation will help increase passenger traffic and load factors,” said Amine Wafy, an equities analyst at Renaissance Capital in Dubai.

Air Arabia operates at near-full capacity into Saudi Arabia and the company could add more planes than anticipated for those routes, helping offset the lost capacity from flying into Qatari market, he said.

Air Arabia serves 13 cities in Saudi Arabia, including key destinations Jeddah and Dammam, that are among the top 10 busiest routes for its Qatari peer, according to consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan.

Since the ban came into effect on June 5, the bigger carrier has had to cancel some 880 flights into the kingdom, data from research firm OAG shows.

Air Arabia has struggled this year to boost its bottom line amid overcapacity and lower fares, weighing on shares.

Additionally, low oil prices have acted as an economic headwind in the Middle East, where the commodity is a key export. The stock is the biggest loser among 22 airlines based in developing economies with a market value exceeding $1 billion.

Things may get worse before they get better. The airline is forecast to report a 25 percent slide in second-quarter profit from the year-earlier period when it releases results next month, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

That compares with a 10 percent drop in the first three months of the year.

“Air Arabia’s fleet is able to sustain operations to destinations that are not more than five flight hours away at the moment,” said Mark Martin, head of Martin Consulting. “That implies that its network and revenue are far more resilient since its core income comes from the blue-collar and white-collar labor traveler market.”

–With assistance from Tugce Ozsoy and Ksenia Galouchko

This article was written by Filipe Pacheco and Deena Kamel Yousef from Bloomberg and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

Serious about airlines? Subscribe to Skift Airline Weekly to get the strongest business insights in the world of commercial aviation

Photo Credit: Air Arabia sees a stand to gain from the crisis facing Qatar Airways, one of the region’s major long-haul carriers, which routinely flies through Saudi airspace but is affected by a diplomatic ban. Air Arabia